Food and conversation, April 25 at the Essex House in Island Pond!
A consortium of agencies and individuals plans to descend on Island Pond to pick your brains - Essex County residents - this consortium needs to hear from YOU. How does substance use disorder affect your community? Your family? Your workplace? What are the treatment options that people use? Prevention, intervention, treatment and recovery - what's Essex County lacking?
5:30 - 8, April 25 at the Essex House - free food, too!
(Please read below if you don't mind jargon. If not, you're safe to stop reading here)
Heath Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) have awarded a Rural Community Opioid Planning Grant to two northern rural areas of Vermont: The Northeast Kingdom and Franklin/Grand Isle. The goal of this grant is to reduce the morbidity and mortality associated with opioid overdoses in high-risk rural communities by strengthening the organizational and infrastructural capacity of multi-sector consortiums to address prevention, treatment, recovery, and workforce needs. A strategic plan is set to be in place by September, 2019. During this process, community members will be invited to attend a listening session to ask questions and give comments about their experiences and hopes for their own communities. Information from these listening sessions will help direct the planning, and eventually the implementation of these plans. Several local needs have been identified by agencies, and the next action is to talk with community members. We have identified you as someone who might help us know others in the community who would add a valuable voice to this planning.
The next community listening forum will be Thursday, April 25, 2019 in Island Pond at the Essex House, 5:30 – 8 PM.
Northeast Kingdom Consortium Members:
Community Justice Centers – St. Johnsbury, Orleans, Hardwick
Northeastern VT Regional Hospital and Regional Prevention Partners
VT Cares
Kingdom Recovery Center – St. J and Newport
Vermont Department of Health – St. J and Newport
NEK Council on Aging
North Country Hospital and Regional Prevention Partners
BAART – Medication Assisted Treatment HUB
Northeast Kingdom Community Action (NEKCA)
Northeast Kingdom Learning Services (NEKLS)
Northeast Kingdom Human Services (NKHS)
USDA Rural Development (ad hoc)
Agency of Human Services Field Office